With more women journalists recounting harrowing incidents of sexual harassment against Union Minister M.J. Akbar, the Congress on Wednesday demanded his resignation, saying that either he offer a “satisfactory” explanation or resign “forthwith.”
The party also demanded an inquiry into his conduct.
At least 10 women have now come out with detailed accounts of their experiences of sexual harassment at his hands.
This is the first time that the party has unequivocally asked for Mr. Akbar’s resignation after several journalists spoke out about harrowing experiences of sexual harassment during their tenures with him as his subordinates.
Congress spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy, in a press conference, said, “I think Mr. M.J. Akbar must either offer a satisfactory explanation or resign forthwith. How can he be in the Ministry with serious allegations being levelled against him by responsible journalists who worked with him? Let there be an inquiry into it. We demand an inquiry into Akbar's conduct.”
Poser to Sushma
Mr. Reddy also questioned External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s silence on the issue, saying she is evading responsibility that she owes to women being a woman Minister herself and is not prepared to comment on her subordinate.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi too demanded that Mr. Akbar be sacked.
After the first revelation of sexual harassment at M.J. Akbar’s hands by senior journalist Priya Ramani, who disclosed on Twitter that a 2017 article in Vogue India where she wrote about an anonymous male boss was about Mr. Akbar, many accounts have been pouring in.
Bawdy messages
In a story in newsportal The Wire , senior journalist Ghazala Wahab who is executive editor of Force magazine, recalled her interactions with Mr. Akbar during her brief stint in The Asian Age . She recounts that on Mr. Akbar’s insistence her seat was shifted right in front of his cabin. He used to send her lewd messages on office e-mail. In 1997, he called her to his office, and on the pretext of asking her to check the meaning of a word in a dictionary placed on a tripod, he groped her. She finally quit unable to bear the serial harassment.
In a similar account, journalist Shutapa Paul, has recounted her experience while working with him in India Today . In a series of tweets she explained how she was forced to quit her job, after she spurned his advances. He used to call her for meetings late at night in his hotel room in Kolkata. As she refused to attend these meetings, she alleged that her stories were dropped.
Saba Naqvi too shared her experience with Mr. Akbar during her stint in the Kolkata-based daily The Telegraph in news portal Daily O . The piece does not clearly refer to Mr. Akbar. However Ms. Naqvi told The Hindu that the account was about him.
The National Commission of Women has urged victims to register written complaints with the authorities.
